[CLOSED] Giveaway: BagBeautiful Medium Handbag Shaper

In celebration of 100,000 pageviews on Pandaphilia (WOOHOO!) I have an exciting giveaway for you today. Erin, the co-founder of Bagbeautiful, reached out to me and wanted to give Pandaphilia readers an opportunity to win one of their products: a Medium Handbag Shaper. It keeps the shape of your beloved bags so you can keep flaunting them for many years to come (like a shoe tree but for purses). It retails for $14 USD and measures 10 x 13 inches. I know that some of my less structured purses could do with a bit of support and pillow-lovin' (doesn't it look like a comfy satin pillow for your purse? haha).

THE GIVEAWAY: Requirements are listed inside the widget below - you must complete ALL of the requirements on the first page of the widget to be entered (these are mandatory). The widget may take a few seconds to load and you need to have Javascript enabled. Rafflecopter makes counting and verifying entries much easier, so the winner get chosen faster. If you cannot use the widget, send me an email and I'll give you the instructions to enter via commenting.

This giveaway is for United States only (sorry international friends - there will be more giveaways for you soon). Please ask parental permission if under 16. The winner randomly chosen using Random.org. Giveaway ends at 12/11/2012 at 12:01 EST. The winner will be drawn and contacted by email. If there is no response within 48 hours a new winner will be selected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 Medium Handbag Shaper will be provided by BagBeautiful. I am not otherwise affiliated with the company. Image credit: BagBeautiful.com. Compilation by me.

Maxi to Hi-Lo Hem

H&M lace chest sweater dress (S) // Pitaya/Solemio sheer pleated maxi skirt (S) (tucked in as a hi-lo hem skirt) //

From Taiwan opaque teal tights (M/L) // Pitaya yellow patent skinny belt (S) //

Fioni for Payless zip up black cutout booties (5) //

Photography: JJ

BUSINESS IN THE BACK, PARTY IN THE FRONT. Hi-lo hem, fishtail skirts, mullet skirts - there's a different name every week for this style of skirt. What makes sense to me is the fact that it's high in the front like a mini/knee-lengther and long in the back like a maxi. It shows off your legs, shows, and you get a big tail trailing behind you when you strut. While I've been hunting high and low for these all season, I decided to faux it by tucking in the front of my sheer maxi skirt into the waistband and secured with a bright yellow skinny belt. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's more like a really long tulip hem and shows a bit of leg (which I dutifully covered with bright tights to vibe up the black-black block). This also made it slightly easier for shorty me to walk without tripping.

JJ helped me snap these shots in the walk of naked gingko trees quickly after a delicious carvery wrap lunch at Holmes Lounge (1/27). Their house sauce plus a tad of spicy barbeque makes my mouth water just at the sound of it (like right now ... man I feel like one of Pavlov's dogs). It was freezing, so campus bystanders onlooked quizzically while I threw off my coat and pranced around for a few minutes trying to look as un-cold as possible. This weekend consisted of hanging out, attending the best ever Lunar New Year Festival performance, eating dim sum, pho, bubble tea, and Asian supermarket shopping. Somewhere in the fun, there's work to be done. One is as a poet, in the mood before you know it. (Ima dork, forgive me)

By the way, I announced the winner of the Poshlocket giveaway in the original widget. Congrats! Don't worry there's another giveaway for you lovely readers tomorrow!

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Year of the Dragon

Photography: me

EYE OF THE TIGER. Happy Lunar New Year Festival 2012! All of the Asian multicultural student groups had a big preview party last Sunday for the sold-out performances tonight and tomorrow. There were sneak peeks of acts, free snacks and games, bumping into old friends, and a re nao firework display outside at the end. I'm very pumped to see this year's show - JJ is choreographing Chinese yoyo and many of my friends are getting their dance on. Thank you event-goers for bearing with me as I shamelessly walked up to you and asked if I could snap pictures of your body parts (erm ... not quite as creepy as that sounded). If you hover over each photo, there's a strange and telling title for each.

Whew editing these photos took a lot longer than I thought they would. Early morning bloggin' sans coffee (7:30 AM what what), after dropping that horrid anatomy lab which single-handed threatened to turn my sociable and fun last semester into a raging nightmare. Imagine Caveman Angie, holed away somewhere mumbling things like "arbor vitae" "trochlear nerve" "posterior commisure" to herself while prodding at some plastic model labeled with miniscule smudged numbers. Given, I do enjoy learning anatomy a lot but this is all too much too soon. Isn't that what med school's for? My other 6 classes should keep me happily busy instead of stressed to the limit. Happy weekending! 

Readers - do you celebrate a cultural New Year?

Snow Bunny

H&M taupe button neck turtleneck LS top (XS) (gift from JJ's mom) // H&M faux leather biker jacket (Euro 4) //
H&M plaid tweed coat (Euro 4) //

H&M leather camel belt (31-32") // Forever 21 ankle zip skinny jeans (26) //

From Taiwan furry camel chunky heeled boots (36) // From Taiwan white rabbit (?) fur ball scarf // 

Photography: JJ

TAUPES & FUR. Happy belated Chinese (Lunar) New Year everyone! I've been gone from the blogosphere for a mere 3 days yet it's felt like eons - I would blame it on schoolwork but honestly for once I'm caught up and even ahead in certain courses and spend most of my free time catching up with old friends. This is such a sharp contrast from last semester and despite a crazier courseload now, day-to-day is much more live-able. So 'scuse me if I was off writing poetry or having an afternoon coffee to relax (versus to prop up my eyelids) or playing racquetball.

This was what I wore for the Lunar New Year festivities on Sunday (1/22): a twist on the turtleneck theme, leather jacket, and boots with the furrrr. To accessorize, an interesting scarf from Taiwan last year - actually a replacement one bought on the street near a night market because I somehow lost the one I got for ultra cheap (like $4?) at a department store. It's fuzzy and soft but smells kind of funky, so I worry what it's really made out of ... We snapped these shots in the dim lights of the business school after the event, but the T2i picks up light from absolutely nowhere and makes pictures bright as day - still in awe.

Meanwhile, today was a strange day of days. It rained the entire day and I was alternating between sopping wet/drying/sopping wet. I found $11 on the ground outside a bar on my way home (it too was sopping wet). Cold is not my friend, but it keeps insisting that we get to know each other better. Can it be spring already? There's only so much layering permutations my winter wardrobe can handle. Hope y'all have been having a wonderful year so far and keeping up with all those resolutions *wink* : )

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